Montreal's Extrajudicial Police

extrajudicial [ˌɛkstrədʒuːˈdɪʃəl]
adj

1. outside the ordinary course of legal proceedings 

2. outside the usual procedure of justice; legally unwarranted.

This week we heard the story of Montreal political activist Katie Nelson, who is being targeted and harassed by Montreal police in a story that should have garnered more attention and public outrage.

Sadly the story was largely dismissed and mostly ignored  because most of us have little sympathy or use for this dedicated anarchist.

It's too bad, I always thought that the hallmark of a great democracy was the commitment of the majority to support and defend those wronged, notwithstanding their political opinions and actions which may be in direct opposition to popular opinion. 

"Katie Nelson is a twenty-one year old Anarcho-Syndicalist, insurrectionist, and anti-fascist, organizing against neo-nazism and combating Police repression. She was raised on the Mexican Border in Texas, moved back to Alberta at eight years old, and last year moved to Montreal to support the student strike and never left. To date she has racked up almost $6,000 in fines, almost all to do with peaceful participation in protests." Link

 It seems that Nelson started a Facebook page documenting what she and others deemed to be police brutality during the student protest last Spring and published photos of 'offending' individual officers as well as some contact information.
As you can imagine, the police didn't take kindly to the publicity and embarked on a campaign of pure harassment and intimidation in a juvenile act of reprisal.

"Katie Nelson says she’s been ticketed so many times, Montreal police have stopped asking for her address when handing her a citation. They know it by heart. The 21-year-old Concordia student racked up over $6,500 in fines during the 2012 student protests. The litany of charges include jaywalking, swearing, spitting on the ground, flicking cigarette ashes and “emitting a noise” in public.
One ticket reads: “for having professed insults in a park.” That $146 fine came after Nelson apparently said “bastard” in Émilie-Gamelin Park.
At first, Nelson found her predicament funny.
“I actually hung (the tickets) up on the fridge at my apartment. It was kind of a joke,” Nelson told The Gazette. “Eventually we ran out of room on the fridge.”
Nelson isn’t laughing anymore.
Now she’s busy looking for a lawyer willing to work her case pro-bono and attempting to work out a schedule that won’t involve her having to go to court hundreds of times over the next few years. On Wednesday, the 21-year-old was in court to contest her spitting charge and she’ll appear before a judge on Aug. 23 to fight another citation.
Read more and watch a video news story : Meet the Montreal protester with $6,500 in fines after she outed cops for misconduct

There are those of you reading this blog who might say good on the police because she deserved a little payback.
If you believe that you should be ashamed.

Katie Nelson is in fact an avowed anti-'everything' and has crossed the line more often than not. I don't agree with just about everything she stands for, but as the quotation inaccurately attributed to Voltaire goes;
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

As I researched Ms. Nelson across the net, I was saddened to learn of the poor state of mind of this obsessive-compulsive activist. It's hard to comprehend such a young, brilliant, articulate and energetic sole descending  into such a dark and forbidding place.
Read this disturbing article written by her, to get a limited understanding of what she is about.

"Letter from a young activist on her 21st birthday

I want to thank the people who have supported me this past year. It is for your courage and trust that I am grateful today. I didn't think I would ever live to be twenty-one. For me, this is an unbelievably impossible day, one that five years ago, I didn't think I would ever see and that a month ago I didn't think I would live to experience. But despite every dark hour and every night that I got close, I am here. And for now, I'm not going anywhere.
So if I don't live for the twenty-second birthday, remember my only request: What you are fighting is the most honest and amazing thing, and no matter how many people tell you different, you are doing the right thing. So take this system by the balls and burn the mother fucking city to the ground. 
In love and in rage, -Katie." Read the entire piece 

To get her point of view, read this; Eyewitness account of Montreal police repression of monthly bike ride

Now I want to preface this next part with a defence of the Montreal police for their actions in relation to the student street actions in opposition to tuition hikes.
It is true that the police crossed the line, using methods like 'kettling' and preemptive arrest and over-exuberant arrests, but harsh times call for harsh measures.
The students were determined to cause mayhem, for no other reason but because they could.
There was a distinct possibility that the police would 'lose' the streets and that would have brought on even more repression with authorities forced to invoke Martial law, akin to what happened in the October crisis.
The students didn't get what they deserved, they got what they wanted, violent confrontation. 

So I'm not going to take police to task over their harsh methods in putting down the student insurrection and as for the students, including Ms. Nelson, I've no sympathy for the bruises, bumps, fines and tickets they incurred in the act of rioting or demonstrating illegally.

That being said, this current campaign of harassment against Ms. Nelson is completely unwarranted, immoral and patently illegal.
There is no 'greater good' to be argued and the police action against her should be seen for what it is, an illegal action of intimidation and harassment.

I would hope that the police chief of Montreal would rein in his activist cops, but alas, every Montreal police chief in the last twenty years has been held hostage by the policeman's union, who actually rule the roost.

Now that the story of this harassment has become public it remains to be seem what remedial action will be taken.
I would hope the Quebec Justice Minister, looking down from his office in Quebec City will call the Montreal police to order and demand a return to the strict rule of law.
The extrajudicial punishment meted out by Montreal cops, tolerated and perhaps encouraged by superiors cannot be acceptable in a truly democratic and free society.

Last week a Montreal man was given a $147 ticket for sitting under a tree in a Montreal park, which is supposedly forbidden.
The policeman explained that since ticketing was a standard operating procedure for keeping vagrants from sleeping in the park, it was only fair to ticket 'regular' people once in a while... Link

And so Montreal police have an arsenal of 'ticket' weapons to be used against those they don't like.
Spitting, swearing in public, sitting on the grass and jaywalking are but a few nonsensical offences used by police to harass those they don't like.

If all else fails, our glorious police will stop and search people based only on their skin colour, as every Black Montrealer can attest.
Montreal remains one of the few cities where 'driving while Black' is automatic probable cause for an identification check. All of this, completely reprehensible and entirely illegal.

I don't see many people sympathetic to the likes of Katie Nelson, but we should be.
Tolerating this type of extrajudicial behaviour by our police diminishes us all.

An ex-assistant director of the SPVM once told me that the public has no problem when police use extrajudicial force on criminals and as long as those measures are used against those who 'deserve it,'
well, ....nudge, nudge, wink, wink, let's all pretend we didn't see it or know about it.
A heinous dereliction of civic and social duty.

I hope Katie Nelson finds a sympathetic lawyer to take her case and sues the pants off the Montreal police. She might get a big payday.
While police spokesmen stonewall us and tell us with a straight face that nothing untoward is going on or that they can't comment on the case, that baloney won't stand up in court in front of a judge who has heard this type of bullshit before.
Any judge worth his salt will see the situation for what it is and will no doubt come down hard on the police.
Judges generally don't like the police using the courts as a weapon against its own citizens and actually consider themselves guardians of the justice system.

Read some of my previous posts on the Montreal Police;

Montreal Police Harass Entire Black Community 
Montreal Police Go Beyond Racial Profiling 
Montreal Police Get the Respect They Deserve

And so I defend Katie Nelson on principle and I hope you do too.
Why?......  Because I am reminded and live by this quote;

The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing

...Edmund Burke

Pauline's Chickens Come Home to Roost

It is one of the more curious attributes of our system of government, that is, the generally irresponsible and unrealistic braying and sniping coming from opposition benches in Parliament, from politicians utterly disconnected or unconcerned with reality.

It isn't a Quebec phenomenon, it is part and parcel of our democracy, the British Parliamentary system of government.

For politicians in opposition, it's a make-believe world, where what you say and do makes no difference or never-mind, and where with the passage of time, the irrelevancy of it all either wears you down into a cynical wretch or turns you into a zombie-like creature disconnected from reality, living in a fantasy world.

Listening to the Utopian drivel that spouts from the mouths of Thomas Mulcair and his gang of Ndp career bench-warmers, the constant gratuitous bellyaching, nit-picking and outright distortions, is enough to turn ones stomach, but alas its part of the game.
Mulcair hasn't been there long, but already displays the classic symptoms of 'oppositionitis,' his latest irresponsible outburst, the unfounded and contemptuous claim that rail deregulation, instituted by the Conservatives, was a contributing factor in the Lac-Megantic train wreck disaster.
When faced with the evidence that the incidence of train wrecks has actually gone down since deregulation, Mulcair did the honorable thing and denied ever having made the assertion.
Nobody paid much mind to his gaffe, at best it received a condescending chuckle in the Press, because what Mulcair and the Ndp think or say affects our lives not a whit.

It's a pet theory of mine, that long bouts in opposition render politicians unfit for power, their minds permanently hobbled by the numbing forces of obscurity and irrelevancy, where imaginary battles long fought, make real ones impossible to face.

God help Canada if the NDP ever attained power.
I cannot imagine the harm that the arrogant (Do you know who I am!) Mulcair, abetted by the insufferable Libby Davis and the likes of the injudicious and nasty Pat Martin could cause.

Wait a second!
I can imagine what it would be like to suffer under an Ndp government.... We've got our own not-ready-for-prime-time gang of PQ fools wreaking havoc here in Quebec, right now!
And what glorious and destructive havoc it is!

I'm not sure why pundits expected  from Pauline Marois' motley crew of amateurs, I wrote about  the inevitable disaster to be anticipated courtesy of the talentless hacks and nobodies that make up her cabinet, long before the gaffes manifested.
Read: Pauline Steers a PQ Ship of Fools

The only real surprise was Pauline herself, who should have had enough experience to carry the ball as Premier, but she too, it seems, has suffered from the long years in obscurity and has developed a healthy dose of 'oppositionitis,' the numbing and debilitating condition that renders politicians useless and ineffective.

Now let us consider Pauline's first goal, to convince Quebecers that sovereignty aside, her government could and would provide honest, capable and effective government.

As the modern vernacular puts it.... 'How's that going for you, Pauline?'

So like Lucien Bouchard before her, the goal of convincing Quebecers that the PQ is responsible started with balancing the budget, surely an achievement that the electorate would have to take notice of.
Back in the day, Bouchard nearly destroyed the health care system in a wrong-headed attempt to balance his budget, reducing staff, buying out doctors and nurses contracts in a self-harming and long-reaching debacle that has repercussions today. 

Pauline is going back to that same playbook, doing a balanced budget variation that is just as destructive and futile as Bouchard's folly. I wonder if she expects a different result?

And so Pauline asked the Education department to take over $200 million in cuts, knowing full well that  the various School Commissions which would be affected have the ability to tax homeowners directly and that they could raise the difference in funding on their own and this, without affecting the provincial budget.
That's exactly what happened, with announced school taxes rising by up to 60% in some unlucky districts.

In adding additional capacity to the province's money-losing wind generation power program, Pauline knows that it will be Hydro-Quebec, not her government, which will bear the financial burden.
And so Hydro-Quebec has announced that it has no choice but to raise rates substantially to pay for Marois' promises.

How clever of our Premier!
Forcing other agencies to hike taxes and rates in order to help her balance her budget. A not-so-sophisticated political game of Three Card Monte, where like the elusive Queen of Hearts, the taxes are always hidden from the suckers.

The politics of these issues  are usually above the public's capacity to understand and so, a little political rope-a-dope is usually all it takes to tire the public of the issue..

But alas, this issue may be the exception that proves the rule, somehow the white elephant that is the wind-power program has ignited and resonated with the public.
Taxpayers are not bright, but recognize a simple swindle when they see one, especially when it is they who are being conned.
The issue of the egregious political pork, benefiting a small PQ constituency in the boonies, while the rest of us pay the obscene bill, is something that will not pass unopposed.

There is a rising crescendo of rage in the Press, the Premier's sneaky attempt to have her cake and eat it too, not passing the mustard of acceptable governance.

As the issue gathers traction, more and more horror stories are appearing in the Press every day and so it seems that Premier Marois' chickens have come home to roost.

There will be Hell to pay in the Fall when Parliament resumes sitting. The Liberals smell blood, but more importantly the Press smells a story that will spark interest.

Either the Premier does a quick reversal on the wind energy project (entirely possible), or her government is in deep, deep trouble, the CAQ cannot on principle support that kind of waste and so with the Liberals lapping at the PQ heals, something may just give.

 Pauline has demonstrated but one political talent, the ability to survive, but like the Teflon Don, sometimes your number is up.

Back to the Future..."No Klingon in Quebec"

Readers I'm out of town and still loafing around, enjoying family, especially my grandkids in Brooklyn.
In such a happy frame of mind, it hard to turn attention to the dismal affairs of state back home.
Instead of a blank, I'd like to reprint some pieces that I wrote early in the history of this blog, pieces that most of you haven't read and those that I am most proud of.
This one was written almost four years ago and it is a personal favourite.

Not many of you read it, as the blog was new back then and had few followers.
Enjoy..

Imagine that scientists discover a 'wormhole' in space, one that allows humans unlimited access to the universe. The United Nations sends an exploratory team through this portal that finds thousands upon thousands of inhabited planets, most of them teeming with intelligent and sophisticated life.

As one would expect, each of these societies use their own unique and particular manner of communication. Some use telepathy, some speak orally and others use touch. All have their own unique language.
It's also discovered, that when planetary societies interact with each other across the universe, one common second language is employed.
That language is determined to be 'KLINGON.'

The explorers return to Earth and report their findings. Contact with the Universe promises unparallelled advancement. The world is moved to action.

If Earth is to communicate with the universe, Klingon needs to be adopted as the secondary common language of Earth.
The nations of the world react. Comprehensive programs in Klingon language instruction are initiated in all the nations of the world.

Everybody is excited to embrace the new language, nobody wants to be left behind..... well almost nobody....

In the obscure and sparsely populated province of Quebec, in Canada, the common consensus amongst intellectuals, educators and political leaders is that speaking Klingon is unnecessary. In fact, they hold that learning Klingon represents a threat to the preservation of the indigenous French language.

"While it's nice to speak other languages, it's certainly not necessary" they say.

'A Quebecker doesn't need to speak Klingon to work in Tim Hortons or to be mayor of Montreal, or even Premier of Quebec for that matter! We can live quite nicely in French alone!"

But there's a minority who object, they remind the French language zealots that the whole world has embraced Klingon.

The naysayers are dumbfounded."Doesn't it make sense to do the same?"

"Non! Non!" answer the zealots" Those who want to interact with us, can learn French as easily as we can learn Klingon."

"But that makes no sense! What if we want to travel around the universe? What if we want to sell our products to other planets? How will we communicate?" French is a small language and Klingon is universal, do you really believe that the onus is on them to learn French, rather than on us learning Klingon?"

"MAIS OUI, BEN SUR!!!"

Argghhh.........
Louis Prefontaine is a Quebec blogger who typifies Quebec French language radicalism, those who share a common and dangerous philosophy- "Better to be mediocre in French, than successful bilingually."

Mr. Prefontaine complains in his blog about the students of a French language university in Montreal, the Université du Québec à Montréal(UQAM), who created a video sensation on YouTube.
The students produced a humorous and catchy one-take tribute video that has recently gone viral. The video is a takeoff of the Black-Eyed Peas song "I Got a Feeling

I first became aware of the video when I saw it touted on CNN, where commentators raved. To date close to a million people have viewed it on YouTube. Not bad.

You'd think that Mr. Prefontaine would be happy for the Quebec students' international success, but if you thought that, you'd be wrong.

Here's what Mr. Prefontaine had to say about the video;

"Even our university bred elite of the future are infatuated with English, as proven by this video created by students of UQAM with it's bilingual presentation, English song and text in English. We need to restore a French complexion to the city."

"Même notre future élite universitaire s’entiche de l’anglais; à preuve cette vidéo de l’UQAM, avec présentation bilingue, chanson anglophone, textes anglophones… Il faut redonner un visage francophone à la ville."

Grrrrrr.!!!!......The students of UQAM appear to be more realistic and worldly than Mr. Prefontaine. They wanted to make an successful video and chose a catchy tune by a popular music group for maximum impact. Judging by the results, it seems that their decision was right, notwithstanding the annoying braying of French language militants.

The students understood intuitively what Mr Prefontaine and other French language militants fail to understand or accept, that artistic success on a word-wide level, means singing, dancing or writing in English.
That's the way it is. Tough luck.
Ask Celine Dion.

I imagine that Mr. Prefontaine would have preferred that the students sang 'Allouette, gentile Alloutte' I'm not sure that it would have gone over quite as big......

Should the mayor of Montreal speak English? Perhaps not, but Klingon, ah, that would be nice....

Quebec Liberals a Victim of their own Success

Polls in Quebec are notoriously fickle, probably because the voters are as well, but it's pretty clear that whatever short-lived romance the electorate had with Francois Legault and the CAQ, it's pretty much over.

The numbers for the CAQ have steadily declined to the point that they now are nothing more than a spoil-sport, presenting a dangerous situation for Quebec democracy, where the PQ government, lounging in the low 30% approval ratings, soldiers on because the CAQ is afraid of being decimated at the polls, in any potential election

With polling numbers like these below, the CAQ has good reason to fear an election. Never underestimate a politician's will to survive and between doing the right thing and preserving one's job a little longer......well.

Nouveau sondage Léger montre une situation similaire au dernier Crop

And so, much to our consternation, we aren't going to face an election anytime soon as the PQ, is ironically the chief beneficiary of the Liberal party's resurgence and the CAQ's decline.

As you can see in the chart above, the Liberal party is in majority territory, a frightening scenario for the PQ, but even worse for the CAQ, which would likely not survive an election rout.

It isn't really a case of the CAQ foundering or losing its way, but rather the reality that set in, once the bloom is off the rose, and where only the traditional true conservative base of voters  remains, less than 20%.

It's hard to envisage any scenario where the CAQ will make a comeback to that brief period where they were leading in the polls, the voters have had a chance to live with the CAQ for a while and have tired of the message of fiscal restraint.
How many times do voters really vote for cuts and restraint, something the CAQ has droned on and on about, to the dissatisfaction of most voters who prefer to live in a fantasy world where their entitlements endure forever.

I like the CAQ, its members perhaps the most honest and realistic of all the provincial parties, traits that are unfortunately a death knell in politics where stealth, deception and  blatant dishonesty usually wins the day.

Couillard delivering leadership

As for the Liberals, the very strong performance of Philippe Couillard and the party's resurgence  has been a pleasant surprise.

Before I go on, let me quote him from an interview he gave to the Suburban

“The PQ ideology is all centred on the fact that in some way French-speaking Quebecers are besieged or humiliated or threatened…It's not true, and we will stand up and say it,” he says, “and I say the same thing in the Gaspé as in the west island of Montreal.”
“Maybe we hesitated to say it in the past, but now we have to say it as it is” he says, adding is that the PQ is working to define identity of francophone Quebecers “instead of seeking to define a shared identity among all Quebecers, one that includes the primacy of the French language.”
Couillard said that while the government had suggested it will tweak some elements of its Bill 14 language legislation in committee this fall, the Liberals will vote against it “not on technical grounds or question of this or that article. No, it's based on false premises. If we want French to be promoted in Quebec there are ways to do that which would lead to a much more favourable climate.” Read the whole article

Readers, as an ex-political organizer, I can tell you this position was brilliantly crafted, whomever in his entourage who scripted it, should be recruited on the federal level and offered the big bucks.

In one fell swoop Mr. Couillard changed the dynamic of the debate, striking at the heart of the separatist argument that Quebecers are threatened and weak, something the PQ has based its entire political existence on.
The PQ have successfully attacked the Liberal's with accusations of weakness in the face of the federal government and for its perceived lack of defense of the French language, to which Jean Charest's limp reply was usually appeasement, with reactions like beefing up the loathsome OQLF.

Couillard is having none of that.

He's going on the offense, striking at the heart of the PQ's  bedrock premise and that attack has already struck a chord, as evidenced in the polls.
The Couillard message is that Quebec is not weak nor threatened and shouldn't act as if it is. Furthermore, more is to be achieved by friendly cooperation with Ottawa, than by self-destructive fighting.

Furthermore, his interview with the Suburban, (an unofficial party organ of the Liberals)  has re-established the eternal link with the English and minorities and has squelched any resurgence of Anglo protest.

The Liberals under Couillard are back in the saddle and to say that the PQ and the CAQ are frightened is an understatement extraordinaire.

The PQ, fearful of losing power will do anything to survive and so Bill 14 will arrive, not stillborn but hobbled enough to allow the CAQ to save face.

Nonetheless, even in its less restrictive form, the law will be another disastrous step backwards.

And that is where we will find ourselves politically for the next while, firmly ensconced between a rock and a hard place, the disastrous co-dependance of the PQ and the CAQ, a frightening scenario.

So don't expect an election soon, even next year.

The only bug in the ointment is the issue of Hydro rates this Fall.

In order to pay for the foolish green energy programs that the PQ government expanded, Hydro-Quebec needs a big rate increase and the media is attracted to the story like bees to pollen.

It is an issue that can rip the PQ apart and if the Liberals manoeuvre the issue onto the front page, the CAQ will be caught, unable to support the PQ on such a fundamental issue.

But from this observer's point of view, the likeliest scenario is more PQ, more Marois, more stupidity, more pain and this, not in the short-term but rather the intermediate.

I remember the great Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup victory of '93 where an improbable combination of overtime victories coupled with underdogs taking out the competition led to a less than stellar team winning the Stanley Cup.

Sometimes the stars align, and like the Canadiens in '93, the hapless, unpopular and incompetent Pauline Marois and the PQ finds itself, through an incredible serendipitous confluence of circumstances, firmly in power.

It's a sad note  to leave on but with that, valued readers, I'm off on vacation and will publish erratically over the next little while.....

I do have a post for Monday which will be interesting and spark some debate (I hope!)

Check in... As I said, I might sneak in a couple of posts, even though I promised my wife to take a break!!

And with that dear friends, I'm off to visit the grandchildren in NYC.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer.

Quebec Not Very Accommodating

A half a dozen years back, a cabane à sucre  was taken to task for making an accommodation to a large group of Muslims who asked that pork not be used in the preparation of their meals.
Since the group was rather large and represented an important and profitable booking, the owner agreed. Why not?

A good time was had by all, the owner very happy to provide a service for which he was well-paid and the Muslims happy for the social outing that represents an important aspect of Quebec culture and history.

But not everyone was amused, in fact the Quebec Association des restaurateurs de cabanes à sucre was horrified that the traditional recipes which included pork were bastardized in order to make a religious accommodation.
The president, Hermine Bourdeau-Ouimet, opined that pork is part of the pleasure at the cabane à sucre and that there shouldn't be any question of modifying the traditional menus. Link{fr}

In another cabane à sucre, 260 hundred Muslims were celebrating a day at the sugar shack and asked that the dance floor be used for prayer for about ten minutes.
The only other group in the hall was about twenty non-Muslims who were told to get off the dance floor for the short period that the prayers were offered,
Incensed, that group stormed out in a huff.
When the owner was questioned by the press over the incident, he remarked casually that there were close to 300 Muslims and twenty Christians and if the majority didn't rule, their money certainly did.

And so was born in Quebec the debate over religious accommodations.

Should we or shouldn't we.

If you believe the polls, most Quebecers don't want to make what are commonly known as 'reasonable accommodations,' a clever euphemism for 'reasonable religious accommodations', fearing that it will somehow lead to a breakdown in society and destroy the all important social cohesiveness, that is the cornerstone of the nationalist narrative.

As a society, we are in fact, very in tune with the concept of reasonable accommodations, just not with reasonable accommodations that involve religion.

The leading anti-religious-accommodation journalist of the Journal de Montreal Richard Martineau makes this point about the religiously observant.

"You chose to follow the tenets of a religion? ..... Then assume the consequences.

Maybe your choice will prevent you from eating in restaurants in La Ronde because you won't find halal or kosher meat ...
And maybe your choice will prevent you from bathing in a public lake, because in Quebec there isn't separation between the sexes.

It's your choice.  
A company does not have to bend over backwards to accommodate you.
If God is so important to you, you should accept without complaint the sacrifices that the religion you have chosen .

This is the price to pay." Link

To many this argument makes sense, but it does show an incredible naïvete by someone who hasn't a clue as to what a business is all about, which is selling as much product or services at a profit, as one can.
If a group of 300 customers made a request for square dancing music to be played while they dine, then square dancing music it would be.
Maybe not to Mr. Martineau, but to any smart businessman.

If you believe in what Mr. Martineau wrote above about personal choice and living with the consequences, then you would have to agree that no accommodation should be offered to a large group of vegetarians who wished to arrange an afternoon at the cabane a sucre, because it too would entail a menu modification.
 After all, like the Muslims, it is a personal choice that vegetarians make not to conform with mainstream Quebec society and so they too should be forced to live with the consequences.

But I'm pretty sure that if faced with the question of vegetarians, Mr. Martineau would find room in his heart for an accommodation.

How about a large Yoga group, which asks that the dance floor be liberated for ten minutes so that they could do some limbering up exercises. Considering that 260 of the 280 guests are part of this Yoga group, is it really unreasonable or just good business?

Such is the folly of the debate over reasonable accommodations, because by definition an accommodation that is reasonable should be supported by all and contrarily we should all be against an unreasonable accommodation.

Of course we make accommodations all day long, the old standby that the rules should apply equally to all, is nothing but a pipe dream. We make these accommodations because they are the right thing to do.

We allow those with limited mobility to park closer to entrances and reserve parking spots just for them, excluding others.
The special prices at the movies for students or senior citizens is an accommodation that discriminates based on age.
The Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts both discriminate against the opposite sex.
Golf clubs that don't allow women in the dining room may be seen as dinosaurs, but fitness clubs that bar men are seen as progressive.

All of a sudden accommodations don't seem so absurd, but when those accommodations revolve around religion, the atheist majority, led by Mr. Martineau see red, the debate always returns to so-called concept of equality, where we in fact violate those rules every day.

And so to the decision made by the La Ronde amusement park in Montreal (owned by Six Flags) to no longer allow Kosher or Halal food to be brought into the park by guests, can be seen in the Quebec context.
After a newspaper story detailing the horror, an online petition demanding that the amusement park end the religious accommodation was signed by 19,000 people who had nothing better to do with their time. Read a story  See the petition

Incidentally another petition, asking the La Ronde to sell healthier food received less than six hundred signers. Link
It is a sad commentary on what drives public debate in Quebec.
I bet if you asked these 19,000 petitioners if it would be okay for La Ronde to sell Halal or Kosher food, the majority would say absolutely not.
Why? Dunno.

The venue has a firm no outside food policy, which is fair for a business that makes much of its money selling food.
Unlike other venues who do offer kosher food, there isn't enough business in Montreal to warrant the investment and so La Ronde caved to the pressure and reversed a policy that did allow food to be brought in.

In a massive show of support, the Richard Martineau's in the media applauded this policy, citing the old chestnut of equality. If Jews and Arabs can bring in food, why not the Christians?

There is of course an easier solution to the problem and as the old saying goes, where there's a will, there's a way.

Like the airlines, the amusement park could have patrons pre-order kosher or Halal or in fact a vegetarian plate from a published menu, perhaps 24 hours before coming. Customers could pay for their purchases online and pick them up at a designated counter.
Not a big deal, certainly not brain surgery.
I'm not sure how many people would actually use the service, but if it were to be underused, the park could then successfully argue that it is unnecessary.

As I said, where there's a will, there's a way.

Unfortunately, in Quebec, there is a lack of will.